Perhaps he is a genius after all...

Many of us who supported the President's election have had some doubts this year: too conciliatory, too hawkish on Iran, Afghanistan, too supportive of larger financial institutions, maybe even too much golf and not enough hoops...

The President's state of the union may help restore some confidence.  He has some momentum now.  The financial forces of the American elite have overreached: They have been given everything, including most of the multi-trillion dollar bailout and yet they are still claiming record bonuses while millions go unemployed, into bankruptcy, into foreclosure. To get some sense of how much economic destruction is pervading America, try googling "bankruptcy blogs" or "foreclosure blogs".  Leave it to Americans to turn their own wealth destruction into a profitable boutique industry.

Now is the time to hammer home his status as a protector of middle class families and his clean tech, high-tech, export-driven agenda.  The  President senses this. He has his foes positioned as greedy, obstructionist and unreasonable and he carefully said as much.  American families should rally to this effort.  Barack Obama wants no easy solutions: He wants long term stability for the middle class.  Quite frankly, even most of us on the left believe this to be a lofty and naive goal at this point.

In reality, we should appreciate someone who holds such noble goals and cultivates conciliatory approaches to the opposition.  But in fact the greedy and the wealthy have conspired to steal the strength of our country in the last ten years and there are few of us with any sort of generational memories who will let them forget it.  War and economic exploitation destroy families.  Let us make sure the President never forgets this.